MOT #1, 2

There hasn't been much sewing going on this month... it's been pretty busy at work and no working sewing machine.  I started two Simplicity 2601 tops, but I'm waiting on my sewing machine before I can finish it.

I wanted to contribute to the MOT sew-a-long hosted by Faye so I did what I could... serging and hand sewing.  I used T-shirt Makeovers by the Sistahs of Harlem.

I made two tops from this book... a one shoulder tank and ruffled tank.  Here are the book versions of the tops.

The ruffled tank took some hand sewing, but it wasn't too bad.  The instructions are pretty straight forward.

I'm wearing the one-shoulder tank with a long-sleeve, which I don't think I'll pair together when I actually wear the tank.  Instead of doing the "ribbon" I cut-off the bottom of the shirt and serged it to the top of shirt.

I enjoyed refashioning my t-shirts.  I think I'll try a few of the other tops in the book as well.  Overall, the book has a lot of great ideas, but I don't think I could pull off a lot of the tops... some of them are backless and/or very cropped.  I like some of the ideas, but I'll have to re-work them so they are less skin revealing...

*Please ignore the white spots on my head in the photos... I'm not sure what that's from and I didn't want to edit it.

New Look 6190 & T-shirt Makeover

I started view B of New Look 6190 a while ago, but finished them last weekend. They were part of my summer SWAP. Hahaha... summer's almost over and I'm only halfway done with my SWAP (I've already started planning for fall/winter... more on that later.) Please excuse the wrinkles in the pants... this was after it was worn to work. :)

This is a close-up of the front band.


This is a view of the back... I'm not very good with darts, but these turned out pretty well I think. :)


Overall, it was a good first pants project. :) They were pretty comfy to wear all day at work. The only thing I would really warn you about in this pattern is to size down! (Based on measurements I should've sewn a size 14, but even the 10 was still a little bit big!) These pants are supposed to help me get my feet wet in the world of pants. Now I need to try to Vogue 1051 that everyone seems to love! Full review here.

The shirt is a refashioned t-shirt. It is the Simple Scoop Top from T-shirt Makeovers by Sistahs of Harlem. The book has some good ideas and very sassy tops. :)

Here's a close-up for the shirt.

The cozy cardi is coming along. I cutout all of the pieces, but then I had to recut one of the main pieces because I stretched it more than the other. Luckily I bought extra fabric... I'm going to try to get it done this weekend, and hopefully have some pictures up, too.

Refashioned Skirt

I've been sort of holding back in sewing for myself because of my weight loss. To date (since mid-January), I've lost a couple of inches around my waist and ALMOST 20 pounds. Running and going to the gym about 4-5 times a week is really paying off! =) I still have at least a 2-3 more inches I want to lose off my waist to reach my goal... slowly but surely I will get there. With all this exercise... it's cut into my sewing time a little bit, but at least I don't have school to worry about this summer. However, my sewing list has grown tremendously since I need clothes that fit! =)

=The Refashioned Skirt=
The skirt was pretty easy since it was a simple refashion of a top. I had started it a couple of months ago and all it need was elastic for the waist.

The top was also too frou frou for me, but I thought it would make a perfect skirt. The bust area was also super tiny... It need lining since it was pretty thin... I just used some navy blue Kona cotton that was in my stash.

Most of the edges were left raw on the actual top, so I didn't hem the lining. Instead, I just used a zigzag stitch across the bottom to keep in from unraveling too much.





(Please ignore the strand of string falling down my leg in the last picture... ^__^)